What are the expectations of a coach?
Have you ever looked at three job openings for a college coach and noticed how different they were? One job its mandatory to teach classes, the next job will say build a competitive program, another will say must have great recruiting skills. Some jobs will list a plethora of duties that one person alone should not have to do (which is probably the one that pays the least ha). The hats a coach has to wear are not only different; some have incredible weight.
However, all those expectations the school has for you sometimes mean nothing compared to the expectations the players have of you.
Ok, some of you might have stopped and questioned that last sentence. I said it right. I am not talking about the expectations we put on our players; we talk about that enough. I am talking about what players feel they need and expect from their coaching staff. It might surprise you.
If you have never done so, may I suggest you put that question out to your team? In a team meeting, write on the board, “What do you expect from your coaching staff?” (I bet they do not say maintain the budget.) Write every word they say on the board and then go over the words with them to make sure you understand their meanings. Circle the words you agree with, that you believe you are there for, that you know you do, or willing to do. Explain why you do not agree with the ones you did not circle (ex. Friend: I am not going to the club with you, crossing boundaries.)
The list is always interesting. I have done this with three different teams. Based on how long the players have known you and your staff, your relationship through recruiting and their relationship with previous coaches; they might list everything under the sun. Some players hold coaches to a ridiculously high standard, because society does. That is why this is important. If a player has extremely high expectations of you, it might take longer to build trust with them. If their high school coach was everything to them, they might not understand college coaches cannot do the same. Or if their aau coach is single and off in the summer, they may not understand why their married high school coach, with 2 kids, can not spend that much time with them during the school year.
After you circle everything you agree with, and explain what you cannot do and why, I then suggest taking it to your A.D. They need to know what is actually important to your team, and what will build the trust between the coaching staff and players. Your boss will also see the additional things that go into your job and hopefully respect those things.
Lastly, your communication will be better with players. They will see everyone puts expectations on people in their lives whether it is stated or not. Our job as coaches is to state our expectations, and then hold players accountable in order to help them reach their individual goals, so we can reach a shared goal. Therefore, even if a player still looks at a coach as too demanding, they might realize coach is keeping up with my expectations, so I should do the same. If the players know, respect and love you, they will see that you are doing exactly what they expect of you and more.
Thank you for reading, and make it a great one.
